"I Am"

(Scriptures: Acts 8:26-40, I John 4:7-21 John 15:1-11)

This past Friday, I made my first run to the beach – maybe my fading bit of sunburn might have been a clue. At my day job, I’d just been through a fairly harrowing succession of critical projects with tight deadlines – preparing next year’s budget, closing the March financial statements in preparation for audit work, and completing our annual 990 filing as a nonprofit with the IRS. So I needed a break. I took the train to Atlantic City….I enjoy train travel, and like the sights as the rail line passes through various communities – Cherry Hill, Lindenwald, Hammonton and so forth, down through Egg Harbor and Absecon, before ending in Atlantic City. In Philly, the weather was far from promising – it was drizzling when I left – and it was misty for a good bit of the day in Atlantic City, though the sun finally broke out of the clouds in the afternoon. I walked a bit on the boardwalk – past all the garish sights and amplified music coming from the casinos – and eventually took a walk to the beach. In stark contrast to what I’ll probably see a month or so from now, the beach was nearly deserted. Every now and then, one or two people would walk along the water’s edge, but otherwise I pretty much had the place to myself – what a strange experience for Atlantic City. I find the sound of the waves relaxing – constantly ebbing and flowing – in and out, in and out - yet seemingly always the same. In my day job I’m often tied up in knots with worry about missing deadlines…..but as I listened to the sound of the waves, back and forth, I could let go of my worries and just rest in God’s love. It was a wonderful – and most welcome - opportunity to spend some time in meditation with God. The contrast between the carnival atmosphere on the boardwalk – and don’t get me wrong; I enjoy the boardwalk as well – but the contrast between that and the quiet ebb and flow of the waves reminded me that, though I often get caught up in the carnival of daily life, to the point where I feel like I’m on a merry-go-round, longing to step off onto solid ground to give my queasy stomach some relief, our loving God, like the ocean, is always there; behind the many voices striving to capture our attention is God’s voice, quiet yet persistent, like the waves flowing toward shore and then receding.


Last week we heard Jesus say “I am the good shepherd”, and this Sunday we hear the words of Jesus, “I am the vine, you are the branches. We are told that we are to abide in the vine, and the vine to abide in us, and that if we abide we will bear fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last. Indeed, Jesus tells us that if we do not bear fruit, we’ll be cut off from the vine – and that if we do bear fruit, we’ll be pruned so that we bear yet more fruit.  This reminds us that even those things in our lives that may at one time have been life-giving for us, we may be called upon to set aside, to give up, in order to keep moving forward in response to the call of Jesus.

What does it mean to abide in Jesus, and to have Jesus abide in us? It is to be fed and nourished by Jesus, to have Jesus at the center of our existence. Our lives are always changing, with lots of sound and fury – but if we abide in Jesus, no matter what is going on outside us, within us the Spirit will always be moving, like the constant waves of the ocean.

Our reading from Acts gives us a picture of what it looks like to abide in Jesus and bear fruit. The stories of Philip in the 8th chapter of Acts begin with a severe persecution in Jerusalem forcing many new converts to scatter and move out into other areas. But, what others intended for evil, God used for good; as the disciples were scattered, they brought the Gospel with them and wherever the persecution drove them, they took the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel. Philip first proclaimed the Gospel in Samaria, and then we’re told the Spirit led Philip south to Gaza, along the Mediterranean sea. Philip is led to join the chariot of an Ethiopian eunuch returning from Jerusalem back home. Philip proclaims the word, and as they pass by a pool of water, the eunuch asks, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” According to the letter of the law as written in Deuteronomy 23:1, because of the man’s status as a eunuch, he cannot be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. But in the life of the Spirit, these distinctions become meaningless. Led by the Spirit, the eunuch commands the chariot to stop and requests baptism, and led by the Spirit, Philip baptizes the eunuch. Philip is then carried away by the Spirit to the next town, and the eunuch returns to Ethiopia, rejoicing. And the words of Jesus as recorded in John’s Gospel came true in this account – as did the words of the prophet Isaiah, who said that eunuchs who keep the Sabbath and choose the things that please God and hold fast God’s covenant, will be given an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. The eunuch, who could not have children because of his status, carried the Gospel back to Ethiopia and bore many spiritual children; just as the church in India traces its beginnings to Thomas, so the church in Ethiopia traces its lineage to this meeting between Philip and the eunuch. Philip was faithful, and the eunuch was faithful, and in the words of Jesus, both their lives bore fruit that lasted to this day.

In the reading from the first letter of John, we are told how we can tell we are abiding in the true vine – and that mark of abiding is love. We’re told that “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” So many religious leaders, on TV and in churches, use fear to try to scare their followers into the Kingdom of God, and the result is religion that is rigid, tense, full of fear. But John writes that perfect love casts out fear – and that, indeed, if our religion is based in fear, God’s love in us is not fully mature, is not complete. We’re also told that this perfect love of God cannot exist side-by-side with hatred of God’s people.

In the Scriptures of the past two weeks and in our hymns today, we consider many of Jesus’ “I am” statements: I am the good shepherd, I am the true vine, and, as we go to communion, we’ll sing “I am the bread of life”. Just before we leave, we’ll sing the hymn “I am the light of the world”, reminding us that as we leave we are to carry that light with us, as Philip did, and sharing that light with others. The God we know in Jesus Christ is so transcendent, so beyond us, so unknowable, that no single comparison can adequately describe his love and justice and mercy. And yet because God is love, he chose to make himself known to us in Jesus. My time at the beach on Friday reminds me that, just as a fish is surrounded the ocean, immersed in it, cannot exist without it, in the same way as we abide in Christ we are surrounded and immersed and filled with God’s love, wider and deeper than the ocean. As Christians we cannot live apart from that love any more than a fish can live long outside water, or a branch can live apart from the vine. Our joys, our sorrows, will come and go, but like the ocean, God just….is….always there, always in motion, always creating and recreating, always reclaiming and redeeming.

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them….There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.” May we abide in this perfect love of God, and because we abide, may this congregation, Emanuel Church, as small as we are, bear fruit that lasts for many generations. Amen.